Bates to Host 2002 Track & Field Championships
HARTFORD, Conn. – Bates College will host the 2002 NESCAC Outdoor Track Championships Saturday, April 27 and Sunday, April 28. In last year’s championship, the Williams women’s team won its sixth conference title in eight years, while the Williams men captured the conference title for the ninth time in 10 years.
The championships should feature strong competition as several NESCAC teams scored in this year’s NCAA Division III Indoor Track and Field Championships. The Williams, Amherst and Wesleyan women each finished in the top 20 in the national indoor championship and five NESCAC schools finished among the top-40. Trinity and Bates finished in the top-20 in the men’s national indoor championship with three other schools among the top-45.
Seven NESCAC student-athletes are ranked first or second in NCAA Division III in their events, including Healy Thompson of Williams (shot put) and Ryan Bak of Trinity (1,500 meters), who each captured the individual national title in their event in the 2002 NCAA Indoor Track and Field Championships. Jaime Sawler of Bates (35-pound weight throw) and Carter Hamill of Amherst (5,000 meters) also won individual championships in the national indoor meet.
Williams has won 11 men’s conference titles and nine women’s titles, including four consecutive women’s championships from 1994-97. Middlebury won two of three women’s championships from 1998-2000. Tufts captured three consecutive women’s titles from 1986-88, and Bowdoin won back-to-back women’s conference championships in 1992 and 1993. Bates broke an eight-year winning streak by Williams when it won the men’s title in 2000. Trinity captured back-to-back men’s NESCAC titles in 1988 and 1989, Tufts won the men’s title in 1991, and Colby captured the men’s title in 1986.
The championship gets under way at 2:30 p.m. on Saturday at the Russell Street Outdoor Track. Sunday’s competition starts at 10 a.m. Results will be available on the Bates College web site (http://abacus.bates.edu/sports/mtrack/nescac2002/) with a link on the NESCAC web site. Results will be updated at the end of each day.
